When Schools Lead to Sex

This is disgusting.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/04/30/montana-teacher-1-month-rape-sentence-overturned-378854592/

Stacey Dean Rambold was accused and convicted of raping a fourteen-year-old student. He served one month in prison for his crime, but could be heading back. A Montana Supreme Court ruled today that his sentence was too short. This new decision means that Rambold will have to serve at least two years in prison.

At the time of the rape, Mr. Rambold was a forty-seven-year-old teacher at Billings Senior High School.  Cherice Moralez was a student at that school. After the event, Moralez committed suicide. Though the defense argues that she may have had something to do with the events, the legal age of consent in Montana is sixteen; Moralez was well under that age. Her death took away the prosecution’s main witness, so the trial was carred out as a deferred-prosecution agreement. Rambold was required to register as a sex offender and was to remain on probation until 2028. In addition, he had to attend a sex-offender treatment program but was later kicked out for not disclosing sexual relationships and visiting child relatives. What’s worse, the defense is still trying to pin some of the blame on Moralez, as if she acted much older than she was and wanted to have relations with her teacher.

The prosecution will consult with attorneys and the victim’s family before deciding how much time they will seek to keep Rambold behind bars. It will be a minimum of 30 days before the case is re-assigned and brought before a new judge.

Did I mention that this is disgusting? It’s a sad, sad world we live in where sexual desires rule our lives and destroy the lives of others. This child had so much in front of her: a whole life of experiences to look forward to. This one experience made it all too much to bear, and now she’s gone. As this trial wears on I can only imagine what her family and friends are going through, constantly reminded of what happened four years ago. And chances are, the trial is going to wear on, because that’s how our government works. To get anything heard or passed or justified people have to fill out paperwork and go to meetings and be assigned court dates and the list goes on and on. Right now the case is in the Montana State Supreme Court. We’ll see how far this one goes.

“Horrible Crime”

Mama, it looks scary out there.

There used to be a time when you could climb a mountain and see for miles. Though that might not be the case anymore, at least America isn’t to this point yet:

http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20140422-would-you-work-here

Pollution in India has been bad for years and is constantly getting worse. Today, it’s to the point where the smog on any given day can weigh down the city. People’s eyes water and chests constrict because of the particles in the air. Delhi, India’s capital, was once best explored on foot. Today residents would rather hop in the car and go for a short drive than walk the streets. This creates a Catch-22 situation; the cars contribute to the pollution, and the pollution makes more people take their cars. The poor air quality is also weighing on doctors as they face more patients with respiratory illnesses. Children are particularly at risk.

Despite the implementation of the Euro IV emission standards in 2010, the volume of vehicles traveling the city continues to contribute to the pollution in India. Car pollution is not the only problem, though. Many citizens of the country will burn their trash to stay warm, emitting even more smoke into the air. The government of Delhi has implemented laws requiring Compressed Natural Gas for all public vehicles and has created a bus system that continues to expand. Even so, it seems there is no easy solution to this dusty, dirty problem.

Even if you don’t click on the article, I want you to see these:

 

 This is a terrible situation. In Delhi, it’s not violence or starvation that’s killing people; it’s the air. This is why, in the United States, we have agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Natural Resources. Without the environment around us, we all would be dead. There would be no clean water to drink or bathe in; no sunlight would reach the plants of the food we depend on. As much as the American people complain about the bureaucracy—how much money they spend and how inefficient they are—America might have problems like this if not for them.

Personally, I want to cry for the children of India who don’t have the choice to go outside, to run around, and to just be kids. Whenever I babysit, it’s always my goal to get the kids to go play outside for a little while. This is sometimes a growing challenge, but I know it would be different if they could not go outside. However, that day may be coming soon. Air does not discriminate, and slow as it may be, sooner or later the air of India will reach the United States, and will probably bring particles with it. Pollution is a world-wide program. More countries should be as proactive as the United States at preserving the beautiful Earth we inhabit.

“It’s too polluted outside”

That’s One Way to Cancel School

If you thought the HCMS bomb threat from last month was bad, just look at this: 

http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/09/justice/pennsylvania-school-stabbing/

A sixteen-year-old male sophomore student went on a stabbing spree at Franklin Regional Senior High School in Murrysville, PA on Wednesday morning. His weapons: two kitchen knives. In the process, he injured about twenty of his classmates. He is now in custody and has been charged as an adult.

Many of the students injured did not know what happened initially. They felt pain, realized they were bleeding, and brought attention to it. Students and teachers did what they could to help before EMS arrived, many of them asking for sweatshirts to stop the bleeding. The injured teens' wounds are “quite serious,” some to the point of being life threatening. Most were in the abdomen and lower back. Some have already undergone surgery. A fire alarm was pulled in the midst of the commotion, which probably helped save some students from the actions of the stabber.

The suspect was described as being quiet and not having many friends, though not known for being a victim of bullying. Mia Meixner, a student at FRSHS said, “He had this, like, look on his face that he was just crazy and he was just running around just stabbing whoever was in his way.” The student was eventually tackled by an assistant principal and handcuffed by the School Resource Officer.

This relates to government in a number of ways. First of all, government pays for our schooling, and government requires us to go to school. School, as we’ve established before, simply is not for everyone. The environment is not always healthy, the material does not always relate. Sometimes public school leaves students looking for any way to get out of class and away from their peers. If students need to pull fire alarms, call in bomb threats, or bring weapons to school, so be it.

As mentioned before, the student who committed this atrocity is being tried as an adult. That means that, instead of focusing on rehabilitation and future reintegration like juvenile court would, his case will focus on punishing this student and deterring him from future crime. This child is sixteen. While it is obvious from his actions that he has some issues, the fact that he is  going to be tried as an adult doesn’t really give him a chance at living life to the fullest.

More and more, it seems that shootings, bombings, stabbings, and the like are simply becoming a part of life. It’s sad. I heard it said today that the evening news is where they begin with “Good Evening” and then proceed to tell you why it isn’t. It’s sad, but it’s true. While we all think we have this shield of invincibility around us where nothing bad happens, it does, and much of it is caused by other humans just like you and I. What can we do for this child? Probably nothing. It’s too late; he’s in custody now. But we still have a chance for those who are starting out in this world. This is why we need classmates and teachers and parents and coaches and leaders who can show the world some love. If we don’t have love, we don’t have anything.

“It doesn’t happen here.”

The Government Plays Scorekeeper Again

Chris Christie has been in the news a lot lately. Some good, some bad. The intent of this article was probably to inform the public, but as we know now, pretty much all media is biased.

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2014/04/03/chris-christie-the-33-million-man/?hpt=hp_t3

Last fall, in a scandal that is now known as “Bridgegate,” Chris Christie was accused of trying to punish the mayor of Fort Lee by closing lanes to the George Washington Bridge in New Jersey. Christie has denied knowing anything about the gridlock until after it occurred. He has since been cleared of any wrongdoing. Though the scandal might have shown him in an unflattering light, the attention may be helping him. He remains popular with Republicans and is a possible candidate for the 2016 election. In fact, he has already raised a ton of money towards that possible campaign and broken records for the first four and a half of a new RGA chairman’s tenure with the $33 million collected since he took over that position. Christie sounds hopeful about the future of Republicans in government, saying “While Washington is broken, Republican governors are getting results, making government work, and putting policies in place to put their states on the right track.” He sure has reason to hope—Republicans are defending 22 of the 36 gubernatorial seats up for grabs in November.

Personally, I still don’t think I know enough to judge Chris Christie. The 2016 election is up in the air, but if he’s doing well at the moment, good on him. I am glad that Washington and the media didn’t completely tear him up after the “Bridgegate” mess, and that people are still supportive of him. It’s obvious that plenty of those donations came from people just like you and I, but when they add up they can do marvelous things. I do think it’s interesting that this article is about a republican and was posted on CNN, albeit not one of the head stories. I suppose the media was trying to add a little more balance to their lives.

“Chris Christie: The $33 million man”